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Telkom is jeopardising South Africa's bid to host the R1,6 billion Square Kilometer Array (SKA) radio telescope by stonewalling the installation of a high-speed data link between the Southern African Large Telescope (SALT) in the Karoo and its international investors and partners. The Democratic Alliance is dismayed that negotiations between Telkom and the CSIR's Meraka Institute to implement the link have stalled. We call on the new Inter-Ministerial Committee, established to oversee the SKA bid, to urgently call Telkom into line before the country's standing as a credible international scientific partner is irreparably damaged. If Telkom had installed the link from SALT when it was first approached five years ago, rather than drag its feet, it would not be quibbling about the costs now. SALT is the pioneer project of our growing collaboration on international space research programmes. If we cannot get the data to our offshore partners on this project we can kiss our investment in space science goodbye. Telkom must realise that SALT is not just another South African corporate that it can string along and hold to ransom on costs and deadlines. SALT is the product of a strategic government international partnership. Its investors include Germany, Poland, Britain, India, New Zealand and the American Museum of National History. South Africa contributed a third of the $36 million (R332 million) costs to finance SALT's first 10 years of operation. The R10 million Telekom initially quoted for the link is within the approved budget. A parliamentary question in August sparked a flurry of action in the dragging ‘negotiations' to get the data link moving. When SALT appeared before the parliamentary science and technology portfolio committee in September it was revealed that no deal had been yet been signed with Telkom but that there was an agreement in principle that was expected to be formalised soon. SALT's optimism seems to have been misplaced.